The Golden State Warriors have been hit with a class action lawsuit that claims the team’s smartphone app unlawfully eavesdrops on users’ conversations.
The lawsuit was filed last week in federal court in San Francisco by New York resident LaTisha Satchell.
The app was developed by YinzCam, a Pennsylvania software company that currently lists 22 other NBA teams on their website as clients. Also named in the lawsuit is Signal360, a New York-based mobile technology company the Warriors partnered to integrate its “beacon” technology into their mobile application.
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Beacon helped Golden State provide its fans with location-based advertising inside Oracle Arena, and the suit is claiming the app also accessed smartphone microphones and recorded ambient sound and conversation without the consent of users. The suit goes on to claim that the app continues to record even as it is running in the background.
When Golden State’s initial partnership with Signal360 was announced in 2014, then-Warriors senior director of digital Kevin Cote said, “Our goal is to use technology to enhance the game via their mobile device.”
Golden State has led the charge among NBA franchises to incorporate technology into a fan’s game-day experience. The stadium’s video screen features a live Twitter feed, and fans can be rewarded for in game Facebook check-ins. In a 2015 article with VentureBeat, Kenny Lauer, Warriors Vice President of Marketing & Digital said, “You have to take risks and try new things…It’s all about how to make technology an enabler of the fan experience and of basketball.”
Up to this point, Golden State had been praised for its efforts to embrace fans’ growing dependence and connection to their smartphones.
Shortly after the allegations and suit went public, Signal360 Chief Operating Officer Lauren Cooley weighed in with an emailed statement to the San Jose Mercury News.
“We have been made aware of the suit and it appears there is a misunderstanding about how our technology works,” she wrote. “Our technology does not intercept, store, transmit, or otherwise use any oral content for marketing purposes or for any other purpose.”
The Warriors declined to comment on the suit, citing a policy to withhold comment on pending litigation with which they are involved, and YinzCam, the app’s developer has yet to release a statement.
Legal basis for the claim is centered on an alleged violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The class action suit seeks statutory and punitive damages. Suggested payout to members of the suit is “$100 per class member, per day of defendants’ violations, or $10,000 per Class member” whichever is greater. A full copy of the submitted complaint is available here.